China News Agency, Guilin, May 22, title: Seventy-year-old overseas Chinese in Guangxi: Show the beauty of Guilin's landscape to the world with paintings as a bridge
Author Zhao Linlu Jiang Fenghui
For decades, relying on his love for Guilin's landscape, Hu Xiuzhu, a relative of seventy-year-old Guangxi overseas Chinese, used painting as a bridge to show the world the beauty of Guilin's landscape.
On May 15, the All-China Women's Federation commended 997 national five-good families, and Hu Xiuzhu's family was among them.
Recently, the reporter walked into Hu Xiuzhu's family, and the plaques of "Scholarly Home" and "Guangxi's Most Beautiful Family" hung on the wall of the living room, which were particularly eye-catching.
There are 14 members of Hu Xiuzhu's family, living in three countries.
The daughter's family lives in Japan, and the eldest son's family lives in the United States.
Hu Xiuzhu and his wife live in Yangshuo County, Guilin City with their youngest son.
Hu Xiuzhu and his wife often told their children to "no matter where you are, always remember that you are Chinese and love your motherland".
Hu Xiuzhu, who loved painting since childhood, is now the vice chairman of the Guangxi Women's Calligraphy and Painters Association and the honorary president of the Yangshuo Painting Academy.
In the 1970s, Yangshuo became one of the first counties open to tourism in China, and West Street gradually became a well-known "foreigner street" and "global village" at home and abroad, attracting a large number of foreign tourists every year.
In the 1990s, Hu Xiuzhu opened a gallery on West Street, so she became attached to many international friends.
"At that time, an American tourist came to my gallery to see paintings and asked me if I could teach him landscape painting. He was willing to pay me 100 yuan (RMB) per hour for tuition, which was a lot of money at the time." This year Hu Xiuzhu, 73, said with a smile that she did not charge tuition at the time, and the two became friends.
This wonderful fate has continued to this day. The American tourist and his Chinese wife now live in Shanghai, and Hu Xiuzhu still maintains a phone relationship with them.
Hu Xiuzhu has been invited to participate in foreign exchange exhibitions many times, and her paintings have been exhibited in France, Japan, the United States and other countries, actively promoting cultural and artistic exchanges between China and foreign countries.
Every time, Hu Xiuzhu chooses to bring works showing Guilin landscapes abroad.
Among them, the work "Shepherd's Return to the Garden" with Guilin landscape as the theme won the bronze prize in the 8th Japan-China Modern Art Exhibition in Tokyo, Japan.
"When I participated in the exhibition, some international friends who saw my paintings would express their yearning for Guilin's landscape and want to come to China to see it." Hu Xiuzhu believes that cultural and artistic exchanges can not only improve skills, but also deepen mutual understanding.
She hopes to let more people see the beautiful scenery of Guilin through the brush.
Next to the West Street of "Global Village" in Yangshuo County, the Yangshuo Painting Academy located in the former residence of Xu Beihong in Yangshuo is open to the public free of charge.
There are tables and tools for painting in the painting academy, and visitors can freely experience painting on the spot.
Since its establishment in 1994, Yangshuo Academy of Painting has been committed to carrying out various Chinese and foreign art exchange activities, receiving more than 100 domestic and foreign painters every year.
Hu Xiuzhu said that before the outbreak of the epidemic, a university in the United States took dozens of students to the Yangshuo Art Academy during vacations all year round to carry out learning exchanges.
"Those students showed a strong interest in Chinese landscape painting and studied very seriously."
For decades, Hu Xiuzhu has also been enthusiastic about public welfare and actively participated in various charity poverty alleviation activities. All the proceeds from the charity sale of her works are donated to public welfare and those in need.
After the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia in 2020, Hu Xiuzhu mobilized the whole family to actively donate money and materials, and asked her sons and daughters abroad to find ways to send anti-epidemic materials back to China.
"I am a family member of overseas Chinese. I feel that I have a special sense of responsibility. I must do my best to help those in need." In Hu Xiuzhu's view, helping others and carrying out cultural and artistic exchanges are all good things. , she wished she could do more.
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